Only 3 of our members attended this event on Saturday afternoon at the Kings Centre in Burgess Hill, which was very disappointing. Last year at one of the Sussex Fed competitions about a third of our membership turned out and we did very well on that occasion. However, I do not think more members would have given us a better result this afternoon!
The first thing to report is that the whole event was extremely well organised by Ken Scott and the Sussex Fed committee members and Battle Camera Club who helped as well. They were rewarded for their trouble by winning two cups!
This smooth running was no doubt helped enormously by reducing the number of entries to 6 in each class instead of 8 as before; this had led in the past to us leaving without knowing our scores and being told afterwards that the wrong club had been declared the winners. It was just too big for its own good.
There were three judges: Rosemary Wilman, Hon FRPS AFIAP BPES, who has been President of the RPS in the past and who does a lot of judging up in Surrey; Micki Aston CPAGB who lives in Brighton and judges competitions all over the South of England; and Jim Pascoe ARPS ABIPP who judges in the Southern Fed area in Hampshire and runs his own professional photographic business specialising in people photography. They were all very good and interesting with their observations of the images, all of which were of a very high standard.
The format for the competition was for the three judges to see all the images in the morning session with all three judges giving their own marks to each image,all 252 of them!
At 2.30 in the afternoon the members of all the clubs assembled, and we started with the Development class. All the six images from each Club were shown firstly all together and then individually. Then, one of the three judges leapt to their feet and picked out a couple of images to pass their comments on what they liked or disliked. Ours received some nice comments (particully Alex's two BW images). Then, when we had seen all the images from the 21 clubs, we had the break which was for 30 minutes and gave us a chance to stretch our legs and have a cuppa, and clear our brains!
After the break, the same process was repeated for all the six entries from each club in the Open section. I did not find these images, the best from the best authors in the clubs, that much better than those in the Development class, which speaks well for the less experienced.
Then finally we got to hear about the winners (and losers!). Firstly the total marks awarded to the top three clubs in the Development class (actually there were four clubs as there was a tie for second place). It was won by Battle with 334 points, with Chichester and Uckfield each with 325 second equal, and Hailsham third with 321. We were 9th with 301,which was not at all a bad result.
The Open winners were Hailsham with 333; Steyning second with 329 and Seaford third with 323. We got 299 and were 13th! unlucky for us!
The combined winners (both sections together) were Hailsham with 654; second Battle with 646 and third Steyning with 646. Very well done to them, our close friends. We only got 600 and came 16th which is the worst result that we have had for many years. We usually end up in the middle, apart from last year when we did really well with our best result ever. How the mighty have fallen! However, we must remember that we were one of the smallest clubs with about a third (or less) members than the much bigger clubs. The selection committee can only pick from the images available and of course there are not so many to choose from due to the reduction in competitions. Something the club might consider going forward?
Our individual scores were as follows: (out of a possible 60 points)
Development class:
- Alex Swyer ‘Wish I had a Finger’ 56
- Alex Swyer ‘Lazy’ 56 These were our best scores in either section, so very well done Alex. Star!
- Paul Hayward ‘Moving Glacier’ 49
- Sarah Beard ‘String of Lights’ 48
- Audrey Grey ‘Colourful Flats’ 46
- Norman Kirby ‘Fig Tree’ 42
Open class:
- Anne Nagle ‘Bee eaters and Dragonfly’ 56 Well done Anne (same score as Alex)
- Jane Coward ‘Wet Feet in the frame’ 52
- David Seddon ‘Banff Mountain’ 51
- Ray Foxlee ‘Des Res’ 49
- Daisy Kane 'Impressions of the Southbank’ 47
- Anne Nagle ‘Red Dahlia’ 44
As one of this year’s selectors, I thought our pictures were all pretty good. However, we all know that we cannot please all the judges all of the time!
As I said earlier, the general standard of the images was extremely high this year. We will live again to fight another battle, as someone once said!?
Anne Nagle arrived at 11am and Paul and I at 2.30pm and we all left after 6pm, a long afternoon.